Am I crazy or have I read this or a very similar post before?
Doing the thing is doing the thing
41–50 of 196 posts
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#42On the other hand.. planning, preparation and mise-en-place can help with doing the thing.
I think the point is people mistaking planning, preparation, talking about the thing... for doing the thing.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#43"Doing it badly is doing the thing." This one works for me, and I've learned it from a post on HN. Whenever I feel stuck or overthink how to do something, just do it first - even with all the flaws that I'm already aware of, and if it feels almost painful to do it so badly. Then improve it a bit, then a bit, then before I know it a clear picture start to emerge... Feels like magic.
Except you do this in a corporate setting and they will stop you the second it works. And then you are stuck maintaining a barely working version forever. I learned this the bad way, but now I just lie and say it doesn't work until it's good enough for me
^^^ THIS ... If what you're building is useful, showing someone a prototype too early can cause the whole company to rush you to deploy.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#44A lot of tech-savvy people (like me) love solving meta-problems.
Doing the thing that would take 10 minutes? Na man, let me build an unnecessary complicated technical solution that in theory enables hundreds of people to do the thing much more efficiently in just 2 minutes. That takes a month and the thing has not been done, ha.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#45Ironically people who fall in not doing the thing category of this article are valued more than those who do the thing.
Sometimes that's because they're making it worthwhile, by connecting the thing with those who will benefit from it and explaining how to use it, which is as valuable as doing the thing.
I.e. by making sure that they're doing the right thing.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#46Is planning, like deciding how to position your troops in battle, doing the thing?
Planning is doing the planning thing, but it is not doing the battle thing.
But both are doing the winning thing, which is more valuable than just the battle thing. Unless you do it just for fun and don't mind the result.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Planning is doing the planning thing, but it is not doing the battle thing.
And running the marathon is just running the marathon? I disagree. Big part of running the marathon is in the preparation. Weeks after weeks of training and not skipping a single session. The marathon itself is the tip of the iceberg; important but not the whole "thing".
There are some things that you just can't do without preparation. But never mistake the preparation for doing the thing. You can be "getting in shape for a marathon" forever without ever running a marathon.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#48In "Remains of The Day" they call just talking about "the thing" an indulgence. Which is really what it is, it feels good, isn't hard, and doesn't achieve anything.
The characters in the book are quick to cut non-productive discussions short, but it feels like the feel good discussions around "the thing" are about as far as many people want to go these days.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sounds not too dissimilar to the release the POC to prod mentality. There are times where you obviously need to do the thing to understand the thing to see the process of doing the thing. This allows for breaking the process down into better steps. Just writing code to do things you think is doing thing but prove not to do the thing when actually doing the thing is common.
I'm talking about having completely different, unstarted, overall projects in mind.
that sounds like paralysis by analysis. just pick a project and go.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#50Ironically people who fall in not doing the thing category of this article are valued more than those who do the thing.
Selling the thing isn't doing the thing, but it pays more!
Life is tough like that